Biographia Epistolaris - Being The Biographical Supplement Of Coleridge's Biographia Literaria - Vol I

PREFACE THE work known as the Biographical Supplement of the Biographia Literaria of S. T. Coleridge, and published with the latter in 1847, was begun by Henry Nelson Cole- ridge, and finished after his death by his widow, Sara Cole- ridge. The first part, concluding with a letter dated 5th November 1796, is the more valuable portion of the Bio- graphical Supplement. What follows, written by Sara Cole- ridge, is more controversial than biographical and does not continue, like the first part, to make Coleridge tell his own life by inserting letters in the narrative. Of 33 letters quoted in the whole work, 30 are contained in the section written Of these 1 1 were drawn from by Henry Nelson Coleridge. Cottles Early Recollections, seven being letters to Josiah Wade, four to Joseph Cottle, and the remainder are sixteen letters to Poole, one to Benjamin Flower, one to Charles Heath, and one to Henry Martin. From this I think it is evident that Henry ridge intended what was published as a Supplement Nelson Cole- to the Biographia Literaria to be a Life of Coleridge, either sup- plementary to the Biographia Literaria or as an independent narrative, in which most of the letters published by Cottle in 1837 and unpublished letters to Poole and other correspondents were to form the chief material. Sara Coleridge, in finishing the fragment, did notattempt to carry out the original intention of her husband. A few letters in Cottle were perhaps not acceptable to her taste, and in re- jecting them she perhaps resolved to reject all remaining letters in Cottle. She thus finished the fragmentary Life of Coleridge left by her husband in her own way. But Henry Nelson Coleridge had begun to build on an-other plan. His intention was simply to string all Coleridges letters available on a slim biographical thread and thus produce a work in which the poet would have been made to tell his own life. His beginning with the five Biographical Letters to Thomas Poole is a proof of this. He took these as his starting point and, as far as he went, his Life of Coleridge thus constructed is the most reliable of all the early biographies of Coleridge. This edition of the Biographical Supplement is meant to carry out as far as possible the original project of its author. The whole of his narrative has been retained, and also what Sara Coleridge added to his writing and all the non-copyright letters of Coleridge available from other sources have been inserted into the narrative, and additional biographical matter, explanatory of the 1 letters, has been given. By this retention of authentic sources I have produced as faithful a picture of the Poet-Philosopher Coleridge as can be got anywhere, for Coleridge always paints his own character in his letters. Those desirous of a fuller picture may peruse, along with this work, the letters published in the Collection of 1895, the place of which in the narrative is indicated in footnotes. The letters are drawn from the following sources Biographical Supplement, 1847 . -33 Cottles Reminiscences, 1847 . . . 78 The original Friend, 1809........